


An Insight Into The Gods

by DeadliestNat



Category: Me Bitch - Fandom
Genre: Original Story - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2019-09-26 21:16:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17149217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeadliestNat/pseuds/DeadliestNat
Summary: Part 1 of An Insight Into The Gods where Madame Red and General Min have thier first meeting other than just sitting next to each other





	1. Bloom

**Author's Note:**

> I didnt look over this at all

Mahogany had called a break into the meeting. Breaths of reliefs were let out in the room. Nothing was ever really completed in these meetings and going on break was just torture for the next twenty or so minutes waiting for the next hour of absolute nothing.

 

Mahogany stayed in her seat as everyone else got up.The gods parted ways outside of the hall each mumbling in relief that they received a break. Madame Red was the last one to leave the room since she preferred to not push and shove to get out. She watched as everyone else headed down stairs and followed behind as well.

The meeting hall was right at the top of the tree which made it a pain to walk up the many stairs, which is why Madame decided to stay close by. The gods had all agreed, mostly by order of Mahogany, to not use teleportation to arrive, though no one really followed through.

There was a small garden, presumably belonging to one of Mahogany’s muses, that was right on the floor Madame was on. She decided that she should take this time away from the closed up space to get some fresh air.

Hedges decorated the pathway to the main garden. Several flowers were neatly planted near a small pond. For an artificially made garden it was better than Madame Red expected. 

Almost a good garden though. Madame noticed there was some wilted flowers near the edge of the land. She shook her head in disapproval. It looks like this garden isn't being properly managed she said to herself. She walked toward the edge to pick out the dead flowers. 

She looked down at the empty void below her. It grumbled and called out eerily. Madame threw the wilted flowers below. 

“Perhaps they will be remade into some more lovelier flowers in their next life,”she said. 

Madame looked up to see more wilted flowers.  
I would be here all day picking these up but I am no gardener she thought. She followed the trail curious to how much of the garden was covered in them. Despite her high judgment of the garden there was no way a trail of wilted dead flowers would be cause of maltreatment of a garden. Around one of the corners of the tree Madame saw the trail stop. 

She turned the corner and saw her. Her head was down and she sat with her legs hanging off the edge of the land. Short jet black hair moved along with the wind. Madame recognize this person as the zombie general that sat besides her in the meetings. The dead flowers had to be her doing.

Madame decided that her little mystery journey had given her enough time to enjoy the break and decided to go back inside to leave the general alone. Atleast she found where the flowers came from. 

Just as she backed away from the corner she had managed to step on dry leaves. That was actual bad maintenance! she thought. 

The general turned back immediately, a little startled by her silence interrupted. They made eye contact. This looks bad, I've got to explain myself, if not sitting next to her would be so awkward, Madame thought.

She maintained her composure and put on a gentle smile. The general straighten her posture and turned around a bit. Now Madame could see she held a wilted flower in her hand. The general stayed quiet. 

“I saw the trail of wilted flowers and thought I should investigate, Madame began.”I thought it was just bad maintenance of the place but now I see what the cause of it was.” The general didn't react or even shift. 

Did I say it too harsh? I should've reworded that differently, Madame now regretted her word choices. 

“Well what I mean is that I didn't expect the dead flowers in such a pretty garden and-” she began until she saw the general move. 

“It's alright, these flowers just kind of appear whenever this,” she pointed at her head, “starts acting up.” Madame Red didn't know how to react, react to either the response or the fact that she got a response from the general. 

“I can however reverse them thought if you'd prefer,” the general offered. Removing a glove, the general touched the wilted flower. Green and yellow sparkles shined around the flower. Once the sparkles were off Madame could see that the dead flower was now a pretty pink rose. Its petals were detailed with red dots. The general outstretched her hand to the Madame offering the rose. 

“It goes with your look,” the general said. Madame Red took the flower in hand. Madame smiled more kindly and genuinely than before. 

“Thank you General, it's lovely,” she said as she held it closer to her. 

“Min, General Min,” Min said. She got up from the edge. Madame nodded.

“We should head back soon,” Min said. She started to walk past Madame. “If you'd like, once the meetings done we could come back out here and I could fix the all the wilted flowers you please.” 

“How about we just come back out here after for a while without all that?” Madame asked. 

General Min nodded. Madame Red walked up next to her. With the same pace and silence they walked back up to the meeting hall.


	2. Portal Discussion Meeting Number Who Knows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing ever gets completed in these meetings so this was p pointless. Mostly wrote it to roast Magmar and show how much of an ass he is. Had fun.

These bi-monthly meetings were the worst. No one knew why they even had them or why they even showed up. Mahogany’s reasoning was that it was a way to show the people that at least the most powerful rulers got together once and a while to discuss “important matters”. 

Today's important matter: over abuse of portal magic. Portal magic was only to be used by authorized permission for beings without magical powers and for other dimensional travel. Though the gods already had their own teleportation magic it didn't mean they couldn't and wouldn't use it. 

That was actually the way most of them arrived to today's meeting. Once everyone was seated and silent the meeting began. 

Mahogany spoke first since no one was going to actually volunteer to even participate to talk.

“I know these meetings are very dull but in order to keep in check with how our people view us these meetings are important,” she said. 

She always had to remind the rest of them by always starting the meetings with a similar saying.

“So,” Mahogany began. “Portals.” Everyone sighed.

“Mahogany dear didn't we already discussed this like, what two meetings ago?” Flame said. Despite her being one of Mahogany’s closest god friends she had to complain. That was mostly her own nature though.

“Yes but think of-” Mahogany began to answer before being interrupted.

“Think of the people's concerns,” Void who sat directly in front of her finished. Void was someone, or something that liked to get to the point, which is why these meetings sucked for them.

“Mahogany the people know our power and our limit, they trust us as rulers and leaders how we choose to use it.”

Some grumbles of agreement rose. Mahogany sighed  
.  
“Look I'm just worried? Concerned that the people may start distrusting us with our magic power. We also must remember that we don't run monarchies so we mustn't act high and mighty.” 

A sarcastic cough was heard from the far right of the room. A gruff looking man sat slumped and alone with a grin.   
Mahogany shot him a look of annoyance.   
“Look Magmar, just because he left you in charge doesn't mean you can suddenly run Hell in a completely different way from before.”   
Magmar sat up.   
“Look Maho, the people can't be gettin’ all worried or pissy about our magic power if we keep them in check. We've been running this joint for a good long while, they've trusted most rulers and have never rebelled. What's all the worry about?” 

The hall was silent for a moment. Then Magmar began to chuckle.   
“Oh I think I may see the problem-o. Mahogany you are our most powerful being here, or is there something changing that?”  
Eyes from the other gods stared at Mahogany.   
Mahogany gripped her hands in frustration but didn’t reply.

“Look, I'm not questioning you or you're power, what's really concerning here is your concern over a few rebellious people getting pissed,” Magmar continued.

Mahogany took a deep breath and maintained her composure. Why was every conversation with this man so complicated?

“Look Magmar, this isn't only a concern about the people, though I did make it one of my biggest points. We also must think about our over usage of magic power from portals. Remember our magic is limited so we must act smart with it.”   
There was a shift of ease in the room. That seemed to calm the slight anxiety in the room.

“That seems logical,” the ice goddess, Ielo said. Everyone turned their attention to her. She was one of the most trustworthy goddesses and logical. Her reasoning and defenses were incredible which is how Magmar’s claims were shut down. 

“There's many reasons why we need to have these kinds of conversations. It is always important to keep every aspect in concern. Our magic, at least as I consider, is a privilege. We have many people relying on us for protection and guidance, so it is our job and duty to keep it in check. If one does not realize that, are they truly fit to have that power, Magmar?” 

That seemed to quiet him down.   
“Now,” Ielo said, “There is no reason to start unnecessary worry about a god's magical power, we all know we are limited and have different ways of using it so starting up wild “theories” won't do us any good.”

The gods seemed to agree. Mahogany silently thanked the ice goddess’ help. 

“So now that no one's magic powers in question, what are exactly are we going to do about this situation? Not all of us can get to places conveniently without the portal’s help.”

This time the concern came from the necromancer madame. Everyone now focused their eyes on her, though a pair of them were already fixated on her before.

“We all live in different lands, worlds and even dimensions. Simply using our own teleportation magic from there to all the way up here, especially many many times, could damage us,” Madame Red said crossing her arms.

“Yea though our teleportation magic is handy dandy doesn't quite mean we can be, just like you said, over using it.” said Cardmaster.

“Hey Cardmaster don't you live in the floaty forest just out front?” Magmar commented.

Cardmaster gave him a wide grin. They pulled out a deck of cards. After a quick shuffle they slowly pulled out a card. Without even glancing at it they tossed at at his direction.

“You've got the card of the devil,” they said. Laughter came out from the card. 

Magmar put his gloves on before pushing the card away which then disappeared. 

“Ok so…” Madame continued. “How are we going to do this? You don't exactly have to use your teleportation to get here.” She pointed at Mahogany’s side of the table. 

“Well obviously if you live in a different dimension then simple teleportation magic won't do.” Mahogany answered. “That eliminates you Madame, General, and the other two who live in a dimension, if they ever show up from not using portal magic.”

Some agreement rose from those who lived in other dimensions but Mahogany could feel the others at ease.   
“For now,” she said.

“We should set up a system where we end up taking turns for using portal magic,” the general spoke up. “It sounds odd but by ranking our magic power we determine who is more capable of using their own teleportation magic more often.”

“Yes, that does sound very logical,” Ielo agreed.

“The ones who already live in this world don't have to rank themselves but it still may be important to know where we all stand in power level. Those who are more powerful will be using their own magic for transportation,” General Min stated. This idea seemed to capture interest within all the gods. It seemed fair, logical, and most importantly beneficial. They all turned to Mahogany for response. 

“Yes that does seem quite alright, “ she agreed and smiled. Leave it to the general to resolve conflict she thought. She stood up.

“Now that we have a plan, we actually have to follow through though,” she said.

“It seems like a great idea! This is sure to work,” Void assured her. The others nodded in agreement. 

Hours later once the meeting had been called to an end Madame Red walked besides the general.

“No matter how well you come up with a plan they will never follow through with it you know,” she joked with Min.

“Well maybe this time it could work?,” Min said. 

The plan never happened.


	3. A Cardmaster and Marie Adventure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yea so i was planning on showing more abt our fav cardholder person but it became whatever i jus did  
> Also i took the chance to show Ielo n Flame a bit as a sneak peek for the next ch. ty yall

On the outside of Mahogany’s stronghold was a forest of floating trees. The trees were magically held by magic power and care from the muses.

There in the woods lived Cardmaster. Cardmaster was neither a ruler nor a god, but their great magical power was not to be ignored. With the help of their cards, Cardmaster could emit large amounts of power to whatever they desire. These cards could be used on people to inanimate objects. Every card has different features depending on its number. The lower the number the more powerful. 

The top 54 cards contained the most amount of power but there were more than 200 cards known. Cardmaster owned all but one. The number 1 to be exact. The card of the rooster was said to be the most powerful card of the deck. It was said that with the number one card one could enhance their power to a god-like state. Fortunately for Cardmaster, the card was almost in their hands. 

Since Cardmaster ruled no land or people they lived on the forest on the outskirts of Mahogany’s place. They had no home however, no matter how many times they were offered. They preferred the comfort of the open night sky, though sometimes when offered by the ice goddess ,Ielo, they stayed in her crystal ice palace. They liked it like this, minimal everything from home to friends. It was much more easier to keep themselves and their cards closer than having a bunch of things to take care of. Besides their mind was mostly on their cards!

Despite them being very outgoing, Cardmaster wasn’t very liked by a lot of the gods. They were mostly considered tolerated by the ice goddess, who thought they were funny and the undead general. The rest just steered clear of them. Perhaps it was their obnoxious ways of approaching people. Or the fact that they decided to suddenly reveal everyone’s personal information. However even if they weren’t liked by the gods it didn’t mean that people affiliated with them didn’t. 

Part of Madame Red’s monster crew was the marionette doll, Marie. Marie wasn’t all that as powerful as her comrades but she was doing just fine. The doll and the card holder got along well, too well. Their personalities were a recipe for disaster. This only made them less tolerable to the gods, but it was well worth it to see Magmar pissed off, at least more than usual. 

One day Marie received a magic card from Cardmaster. The card simply showed a picture of a pine tree and Marie immediately knew where to find Cardmaster. Hopefully no one would notice she was gone or needed. Madame seemed to be busy with other things when she last saw her so it didn’t seem like she would be sending them to kill people today. 

Marie took one of the teleportation orbs from her shelf and put her two wood hands on it. She closed her eyes and kept her location in mind. Bright colored sparkles mixed in with the orb’s natural aqua colored surrounded her. With just a couple of seconds, she was at Mahogany place, or the floaty forest to be more precise.  
The puppet took a step before heavy feeling brought her down. The orb fell to the ground and with a thud to the floor, the orb disappeared. Suddenly Marie felt a little bit of her strength recollect and she was able to regain her balance. That took some power, she thought. She stood up, brushing some dirt off of her frilly skirt and looked around. 

It wasn’t her first time there so she immediately knew what pine tree it was. She counted forty-nine steps forward to reach the exact pine tree Cardmaster had hinted to. Sure enough, on the very top of the tree was the one and only Cardmaster. 

However it seemed as if Cardmaster had not notice her arrival. She called up to them. No response. It looks like their asleep , she thought. She frowned. There was no way she was gonna climb the big ass tree. 

I’m not climbing that tree so, she thought, so my arms will do it instead. Marie pulled off both of her arms that then climbed onto the trunk of the tree, upwards. The arms worked together in sync to climb higher and higher up to the sleeping Cardmaster. 

Once at the top the arms gave Cardmaster a tap. No movement. Marie frowned. Keep tapping cause Cardmaster’s a heavy sleeper, she told her arms. 

“Cardmaster if you make me climb up there I swear-,” she shouted until she felt a tug on her arms. She looked up and saw a tired looking Cardmaster waving her arms around. Marie smiled and used her arms to wave back at them. 

“Took you long enough!” she shouted at them. 

“More like took you long enough, I’ve been waiting days,” they shouted down. 

“Your stupid pine tree card just got here like twenty minutes ago!” she responded. 

Cardmaster frowned. “I guess that’s how powerful card number 54 is.”

“Yea but could you get down here with my poor feeble arms so we can stop shouting like lunatics,” she shouted up. 

Cardmaster nodded. They stood up and pulled out a card. Marie couldn’t see the card but she knew she’d get to see it just as Cardmaster jumped off the pine tree. They pulled up the card and in the place of it sprouted an umbrella. Their harsh fall was now cushioned with the wind to bring them down to the ground gently. 

Once they landed, the umbrella turned back into its original card state. Cardmaster flashed the card at Marie’s face. 

“Card number five,” they said. Marie laughed. 

“An umbrella is top 10 in your deck?” she giggled. 

“I’m only a collector not the one who decides what’s most powerful,” they said as they put the card away. 

“Anyway we’ve got business to take care of,” Cardmaster said walking away. 

“Hey you never mentioned what we’re doing, you just sent a tree card,” Marie called out. 

“Why I already assumed you’d figure it out,” Cardmaster responded. It was no secret to what Cardmaster’s main goal was. The last, final, and most powerful card of their deck. 

“Yea I know what you're looking for but we’ve look everywhere so I assumed we were done with that,” she said. 

“Marie you know that I will never stop looking for that card if it means I can finally compare to the gods.” Marie frowned. She didn’t think Cardmaster had to be like the gods. They were already on the council and had lots of power. Besides she didn’t really care at all for the gods and wouldn’t want to hate Cardmaster. However since they were her friend she wanted to support them the best she could so she followed.

Cardmaster pulled out a card and threw it into the air. A shallop appeared hovered over the air. A woman sat in one of the seat cleared her flowers from the seats, offering them a seat. Marie had seen this card before since it was mainly how Cardmaster got around. 

Cardmaster hopped on offering Marie a hand. Marie took it and sat down. She got comfortable and asked, “ So what’s so important and new that’s got you even more excited to find that card?”

“The ice goddess said she could have some important information about it,” Cardmaster replied before turning to the woman steering. “To the ice domain please,” they said. Marie frowned. The shallop began to pick up higher and gain speed over the forest. 

Cardmaster turned back around knowing that that would displease the marionette. 

“I know you dislike gods but I can assure you Ielo is one of those nice ones, in fact most of the ones on the council are nice! Ielo’s really nice and super powerful she can-” Cardmaster continued as Marie lost interest. 

Cardmaster took note that she was uncomfortable and stayed quiet for a bit. Marie could see them a little uncomfortable as well, as if they wanted to ask something.  
“Well what do you wanna say?” she asked them. Cardmaster looked up from looking at their deck of cards. 

“I, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable so I didn’t want to ask,” they said. Marie nodded but as in a gesture for the card holder to speak. 

“Well,” they started, “I know why you don’t like gods but, what are you going to do or think of me or your madame when we become gods? Madame Red could very much become a god any day from now and so can I when I get that last card, but what are you going to think.” 

Marie looked at them in silence. They asked pretty much of what she was afraid of. 

“Well I really don’t know and it’s something that’ll be answered when the time comes but I swear whatever happens or until that day comes I’ll-” she said until she was interrupted by the boat that came to a harsh halt. Marie looked up. Ice surrounded them and a breeze passed by. 

The woman nodded at Cardmaster as she lowered the boat. Once the boat touched the ground the boat disappeared. Cardmaster picked up the card and placed it away. They offered a hand to Marie who got up on her own. 

“Well if you’d like we can talk about this later,” they said to Marie. Marie shrugged. 

“So what exactly does this Elsa lady have for you?” she said crossing her arms. 

“Ielo might have found me some clues to where that last card could be,” they said. Both of them began walking towards the ice palace in silence.

~~~

“Ah Cardmaster you're here!” 

They were greeted by the ice goddess herself once inside the ice palace. Behind her was her sibling Flame who did not greet them with a hello but with a look. That kinda gave Marie a bad impression. 

“Hello Ielo and Flame, I’ve come because you’ve said you’ve got some important information on what I’m looking for, yes?” Cardmaster said already cutting to the chase. 

“Ah yea that.” Ielo began, “I’ve heard news from some of my people of a strange card, the talk became so big I ended up interested since I do know that is your whole thing. The thing is I’m actually not sure if it is the card you are looking for you see since it’s been described as rare and mysterious and-” 

“That sounds exactly like the card I’m looking for!” Cardmaster cut her off and patted her shoulder. 

Ielo smiled. Cardmaster’s excitement let the ice goddess give off a kind and genuine smile that made Marie soften for the god for a bit. She eased off a bit. 

“Well,” Ielo sighed in content. “I’ll send some experts over to investigate and find that card for you! Meanwhile, would you two like to have lunch?” 

Marie and Cardmaster nodded. Flame put her hands on her hips.

“Wait a minute,” the flame goddess spoke. “You marionette girl,” she pointed at Marie, “Aren’t you one of Madame’s monsters?”

Marie nodded. Flame raised her eyebrows in amusement.

“You don’t look like a scary monster, you’re actually really cute! Your outfit is really pretty!,” Flame complemented her. That was a completely different response than Marie had expected.

“Ah, I thank you Mx. Flame,” she thanked her. 

As they walked towards the dining hall Cardmaster and Marie talked. 

“See the gods are really nice,” Cardmaster said to Marie. 

“The flame-y one kinda scared me for a bit but thankfully she’s sweet,” Marie said now a little bit more at ease. 

At the dining hall Ielo assured them that the team sent out to find the card would or should be back before dark. They thanked the goddess and continued with lunch. 

“What’s wrong Marie, you haven’t touched your lunch,” Cardmaster frowned at the marionette. 

“I, I, Cardmaster, are you aware that I can’t eat,” Marie said. 

Cardmaster looked at her in confusion. 

“Are you telling me, you’ve never noticed me not eat??” 

Cardmaster shook their head. 

“Wow you really do fixate too much on those cards.” 

For the rest of the time they waited they spent exploring the ice palace. It was surprisingly smaller than one would expect a palace to be. They hung out with the ice goddess and her sibling for a while until they left to attend to business. 

The duo hung out at the ice goddess’ library for the time being. The sunset’s colors began to shine onto the ice which made the room look extravagant. With the help of Marie’s marionette power they stacked books on top of each other to create a fortress. Cardmaster at the very top of the stack pulled out four cards at random. They crossed their fingers and closed their eyes. 

The numbers 33, 34, 35 and 40 appeared. 

“Oh shit, Cardmaster it’s not a line,” Marie called out. Cardmaster opened their eyes and cursed. Marie controlled the stack of books in order to create a slide for Cardmaster to fall softer.

“Gosh I thought my luck had improved but I guess it wasn’t enough to create a line. Thank you Marie,” they said.

“No problem dude, you were super close it was just the random last number so no worries you're super close. After we get that last card in just a few minutes you’ll see how powerful you can be,” she assured them. Cardmaster nodded.

After a couple more tries of card lining there was a knock at the door. Two guards opened the door and the two goddess appeared. 

Ielo almost out of breath rushed to Cardmaster with a closed box. “Is, is this your card?”

Cardmaster thanked the goddess for her hard work in helping them find the final card in their deck. Cardmaster closed their eyes, not ready for the following power that would be granted to them next. They took the box from the goddess’ hands and opened the box. 

A flash of cyan and gold sparkles surrounded the card, not yet revealing the card’s number or identity. Everyone was now crowded around the box as the magic vanished. 

At the top left of the card the number was not in fact the number one, but the number fifty-five. The rest of the card was blank as everyone else’s expressions.

“Well, it's a rare card,” Cardmaster said. Ielo looked disappointed.

“I uh it’s those cards after 54 that we card holders have to figure out what they are but the fifty-fifth is one of those rare ones,” Cardmaster said trying to sound a bit more positive for the ice goddess. Flame put her hand on her sibling’s shoulder. 

The hype for the first card had set too high expectations for them however for Cardmaster to obtain the 55th card was lucky. Perhaps that was a sign of better luck for them?

Ielo promised the duo dinner before their departure. Cardmaster had assured the ice goddess that her help and kindness to them was in great debt. Marie looked at the god sibling’s genuine emotions and feelings. Perhaps Cardmaster was right about there being some good gods.

Ielo gave them three orbs to return back to Mahogany’s place. 

“Please don’t strain yourself marionette,” Ielo said to Marie. “It’s a long ways back to your Madame’s realm.” 

Marie thanked her and assured her that she would have enough strength and power to not completely collapse on her way back. The goddess’ waved at them as they held onto the orbs to return back. 

In a flash the duo was back at the pine tree from earlier. Two out of three of the orbs were gone leaving Marie with the last one to return home with. The card holder and the marionette sat back for a bit to let the her rest to regain some magic strength before teleporting back.

The two laughed as they recalled their day and agreed that despite the slight disappointment from not finding the last card, that they were lucky enough to have found another card for Cardmaster’s deck. 

“It seems as if you kind of liked the god siblings, Maire,” Cardmaster said. Marie shrugged. 

“They were nice,” she said a little bit embarrassed to admit that the sudden kindness she received was actually nice. 

“Sorry for being all emo with you on the way over,” Cardmaster apologized to Marie. 

“Nah man, I was the one kinda being an ass and all,” Marie said. 

Marie stood up feeling a bit more recharged and so did Cardmaster. 

“Well either way, thank you for supporting me, today and always,” Cardmaster thanked her. 

Marie smiled. “That’s what friends are for buddy!” 

Cardmaster gasped and struggled to pull out a card from their deck. With a quick shuffle they pulled out a card and showed it to Marie. 

“You get the card of Best Friends,” they said handing it over to the marionette.  
Marie took the card from their hands. The card flashed a mini light show of sparkles and bright lights as letter rose up to spell, “B E S T F R I E N D”. 

Marie thanked the card holder and gave them one last hug before giving them a goodbye high five. It was time for her to leave if not she would literally not leave.

She held the orb close to her, closed her eyes and smiled.


	4. Twin Elements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i said i would work on ielo's backstory so here it is. i also plan to give more insight on flame as well, though i can't promise too much on her. we'll see. also note that this took me months to write and if it seems all over the place, there ya go. however i am proud i stuck through it, all 9,000 ish words. thanks

Cold as ice would be an understatement to describe the ice goddess Ielo. The ruler of the ice region’s own personality matched her perfectly to her home. Her region was a fairly small land of very few inhabitants, mostly consisting of adventurers and people that resisted the cold. The land also consisted of the Glacier Palace, where the goddess and her sibling Flame lived. A clear glass dome surrounded the land within its perimeter, a possible force field, they guessed.

 

The small land was passed off to them by their father, who although wasn’t their biological parent, had cared very much for them and decided to leave them the place later on. Their father, who went by the name Fortuno, pressured by the ice goddess herself, had left the place. Ielo insisted to him that after all the years he had governed the place it was time for him to pass it on. 

The man had once helped them gain control of their powers when they were younger since he himself weld magic powers as well. With the help of his friends and staff is how he raised the two siblings. However, parenting is never equal. Fortuno had always seemed to favor Flame over Ielo. Ielo noticed this and took it as if Flame was favored more because of her personality and power. 

Flame had gotten the hang of her power quickly, her determination and will always burning. The spark of her personality grew everyone to like her better. Impressing others was always Flame's best and Ielo longed for her to one day make people proud, especially her father.

She distanced herself often from others since she felt unwanted and unimportant. She felt neglected and disliked by the people who raised her. She grew cold from her isolation and was easily frustrated with the smallest inconvenience. Her heart began to become surrounded with ice. 

This made Ielo seem cold and heartless which only confirmed people's guesses that she was bad. Ielo noticed this, panicked that she had only confirmed her “cold” personality, Ielo had no choice but to continue it. She turned away people harshly and got what she wanted through her tough demeanor. Ielo's heart was now cold and frozen as everyone had concluded before.

Despite her attitude towards her family, they still gave her sympathy. Fortuno continued to attempt to care for Ielo but never knew why she became distant. Their relationship stayed like that until he had left.

It took awhile for Fortuno to give the land up, mainly the reason being was that he had nowhere else to go. He spent weeks in his room, suspected to be planning where he would head off to, since immediately after being holed up, he grabbed his belongings and departed. He said goodbye to some staff he loved as well as to Flame and left. 

 

Soon after Ielo kept to herself just as if nothing had happened. Flame offered to help assist her in helping govern the land but Ielo refused and assured her that she was fine on her own. Flame knew she wasn’t needed and decided that she would have to leave her sibling on her own. This explained Flame’s closeness to Mahogany, the most powerful god of their universes. Flame loved that she could socialize and at the same time practice her magic with Mahogany. She often stayed at Mahogany’s residence; at least she was wanted there. 

Ielo stayed home often but sometimes spent her time practicing her magic outside of Glacier Palace. Perhaps maybe one day if her father came home, she could show him her improvements she did on her own by herself. 

Her ice magic was mainly used defensively by Ielo; it could be used to create large barriers of walls and walls of ice. A benefit of the barriers were the overtime strength regeneration which help recollect used up energy the ice goddess had used to create the barrier in the first place. Weapons were Ielo’s personal favorite. She could create swords, spears and different combinations of those and the breaking resistance of them being quite powerful. 

Ielo stood outside her home watching the aurora borealis as she created an ice spear. She sparred with the air, attempting to test the spears fragility. The spear took a couple of slices of the air before the spearhead broke off. Ielo frowned. It wasn’t easy to create lasting weapons. Most took sometime to strengthen and later break off after heavy usage. She began to remake a stronger spearhead but as she handled the center, the pole broke in half. The pieces fell and shattered to pieces onto the ground. Ielo sighed. She decided it was time to go back inside. 

“Perhaps I can leave the weapons for another day,” she said to herself as she walked back. It was already getting late so Ielo assumed Flame would be back from Mahogany’s place by then. She didn’t understand why Flame would want to befriend someone with much more amounts of power than her and not feel powerless at all. Maybe she’s taking lessons from her? Ielo assumed. 

Ielo opened the back door of her home and dusted off the snow that fell on her dress. She took off her cloak and shook of the snow that was on it as well then hung it on a hook. The silence broke the place when Ielo heard some murmurs from the other room. She assumed it was Flame or some members of the staff. 

Ielo turned the corner and peeked out. She was shocked to see that she was half right. Flame was indeed there but with two other people. One of the people Flame was talking to was a man with a frown, though he did not look like he wasn’t enjoying himself. The other noticeable feature of this man was that he had a pair of fluffy angel wings that were wrapped around him. His figure had a glowing aura around him. 

The other person was the one who had really kept Ielo in shock. It was none other than the most powerful god of them all, Mahogany. Ielo never expected much company in her home but this was a truly unexpected one. 

The goddess was seated right between the other two, politely listening to Flame, who was the speaker at the moment. Mahogany was highlighted by a glowing aura which only made her look both extremely beautiful and powerful. Her most noticeable feature was her third eye, which was right on her forehead, staring right at Ielo. 

Ielo stepped back, but knew that she already caught the goddess’ attention. Ielo decided it was best she walked out and got over greeting them. 

The crew at the table noticed the click of Ielo’s heels as she entered the kitchen. Ielo was about to speak before Mahogany instantly greeted her. 

“Hello, you must be Ielo. Flame’s talked so much about you,” she smiled. Ielo gave her a polite smile. Before she could even speak, Flame quickly stood up and spoke. 

“I thought you were going to be gone for a while,” Flame began. “Sorry I didn’t let you know beforehand but it’s that we have an important matter to-” Flame stopped explaining once Ielo nodded. 

“It’s ok, I just wasn’t expecting these people- or rather any company at all,” she responded. The room didn’t seem to like her response because they were dead silent. 

“I, uh, what was this important matter?” Ielo asked in order to break the ice. “If it’s to do with this land, I think I should be notified.” 

“Well I,” Flame started as she took her seat again. “It’s a matter of many things, first we’ve noticed that there’s been a decline in our powers. Ielo looked concerned. “For example, some of Mahogany’s muses have said that they’ve felt off or ill. That’s exceptionally strange since they can’t fall ill due because Mahogany’s magic is casted on them. Which leads to Mahogany’s magic being the problem.” 

“I haven’t noticed any difference in my powers,” Ielo commented. “Other than improvement.” 

“Hopefully it stays that way for you then because we aren’t going to waste time for our magic powers to deteriorate,” was Flame’s response. 

“And I’m guessing you are all coming up with a plan now?” Ielo questioned. They nodded. 

“We plan to visit the source of our magic,” Mahogany began. 

“Which is where exactly?” Ielo interrupted. Flame gave her a look. 

“That’s what we don’t know. The magic source changes location irregularly.” Mahogany finished. 

Everyone in the room sighed. 

“I’ve heard the location can be anywhere from this region to the next dimension and maybe even on earth,” the angel man said with a croak in his voice. It sounded as if he were holding back tears. 

No wonder Ielo didn’t know about the magic sources’ location. It could of been anywhere, literally. 

The room was silent for a second until Mahogany spoke up. 

“However once the magic source chooses its location, it’s usually marked down in a book right away for future knowledge. This is done to check the theory if it lands in a place only once. So far it’s never been in the same location multiple times.” 

Before Ielo could question her, Mahogany held up a worn out blue book. 

“Yes, I did bring it with me, since we did figure out what it was.” Looks like this goddess is ready to help her muses. Probably because she needs their power though. Ugh what terrible motivation! Ielo thought. 

Mahogany placed the book down on the table for everyone to see. She flipped through a couple hundred pages. Ielo scooted closer. 

“Here,” Mahogany pointed. “The sources’ last location is recently printed, look.” The others around her got closer.

“Hotel Oblivion,” they said in unison. 

“There? Why there?” Mahogany asked herself. Ielo had never heard of this place before but Mahogany’s surprise worried her. 

“What and where is this hotel?” she asked. Mahogany looked up from the book. 

“This place is, well it’s in the name, a hotel, however,” Mahogany paused. “It’s an abandoned building, there’s absolutely no place for an incredibly magical source there!” 

“Unless,” Flame began. “It was redirected there.” 

This gave everyone in the room an anxious feeling. Ielo decided she didn’t like the feeling.

“Well can the source be redirected? You mentioned it could go anywhere but could it be possible it was redirect there by someone?” Ielo asked Mahogany. 

Mahogany kept looking down, probably thinking. 

“Well?” Ielo was getting frustrated that the most powerful god didn’t have the answer. 

“Ielo, please let her think for a second,” Flame said.

“Well it’s a little agitating that we don’t even know anything about ourselves and our magic and now that we are in complete danger we are so clueless!” Ielo began to rant. 

Flame’s expression could show that she was scared of her sibling’s reaction. Any second longer and it look like the ice goddess was going to lose her cool, however Mahogany raised her hand, to signal for the two of them to stop yelling. 

“It is actually quite possible to redirect the source’s location,” Mahogany spoke up. “I just had to double check before making an incorrect statement.” Silence took over the room. 

“Now,” Mahogany said as she stood up. “We’ve got to hurry to Hotel Oblivion before the magic source or whoever redirected it changes spots again. And may I ask, Ielo, do you have any teleportation orbs?” 

Ielo sighed, “Yes, I have many since I-.”

“Never go out?” Flame interrupted. 

Ielo shot her a look. 

“No, I just don’t find a use for them.” 

 

The room that Ielo directed the group was lined with shelves all around. On one side of the room was some dusty armor. Mahogany dusted a chestplate off which revealed a shiny blue, crystal like color. 

“That armor, is mine,” Ielo commented. “Note the ice theme, and this one,” she walked over to dust a wine red armor with gold outline. “This is hers.” She glanced at Flame. 

Flame and the angel were looking at the rows of orbs when Flame noticed an empty spot on the 2nd row. She realized why there was a missing orb and sighed. Flame never took any since she preferred different travel and Ielo disliked going out. 

“So are you all ready?” Ielo asked. Flame brought down four orbs from the shelves. She handed two of them off to Mahogany and the angel and remained with two orbs in hand. 

She looks up to Ielo who seemed surprised that her sibling was left with two orbs. 

“You seem to have an extra orb there,” Ielo said. Flame looked at the two orbs, then at her friends. 

“I,” Flame started off. She sighed, and then looked back again to her friends.   
“We want you to come with us,” she said a little hesitant. Ielo was shocked. It wasn’t the fact that they needed her to help, she was plenty powerful, but the fact that Flame wanted her to come along. 

“I,” Ielo started to say. Flame sighed and close her eyes. “Look,” Flame started off, “You don’t have to come, I, uh, we just thought that you’d be interested in coming al-”

“l’ll come with you guys,” Ielo said. Flame looked both surprised and relieved. 

“Great! Well actually good because we're gonna need the help,” Flame tried to hide her excitement with throwing up finger bangs.

Ielo moved over to open a chest nearby her dusty armor. Inside was a more formal and fancier armor along with some gray ice boots. Ielo grabbed the items and almost in a flash was changed into the clothing she had just grabbed. 

“Quick transformation to save time,” Ielo said with a smile. “Have you learned it Flame?” Flame sighed. 

“I've been practicing it but I won't demonstrate it now because I'm comfortable with this armor thank you,” she replied. Ielo gave her a smirk.

“Are we all set?” Mahogany asked the siblings. They both nodded and Flame handed off the teleportation orb to Ielo. They all gathered as a group before they went. 

“Oh Ielo since you don’t know the exact location you can just say that you want to go to perhaps let's say, Flame’s location, which would be the hotel,” Mahogany explained. 

“I’ve got it thank you,” Ielo responded. Mahogany nodded at her. She then closed her eyes, both except the third one that was left open, with the teleportation orb in hands, was then gone with a flash. In her place, yellow sparkles fell along with some flowers. Soon the angel man was as gone as well, a feather of his wing left behind. Flame and Ielo were left. Flame had her eyes closed for a second but then reopened them. 

Quickly she glanced at Ielo and stuck out her tongue. “Behaaave,” Flame said as she closed her eyes and disappeared in a flash. Ielo gave out a sigh but then noticed what was left in her sibling’s’ place. The red sparkles that left Flame’s trace fizzed out like a small flame being put out. Ielo wondered if this was a normal trace marker for her sibling but also worried if it was proof that their magic was declining. She took a deep breath before closing her eyes. 

She wasn’t sure if she wanted to think of either Mahogany or the angel. Flame was the only one left but she didn’t want to think of her, it felt wrong and off-putting. Then she thought of her father, who left no detail of where he was. Perhaps if he was back he could solve this problem about magic since he was so knowledgeable of it. Then Ielo thought that maybe she could follow her father.

She quickly closed her eyes shut, now gripping the orb tightly. Take me to my father, take me to him, she thought intensively. 

A few moments went by but when Ielo opened her eyes she was still at home. Ielo wondered why she hadn’t been at a different place, but then remembered. Oh drat, I’m suppose to know where he’s at! she thought. 

She sighed. Why did I even try that, damn. She quickly fixed her position again. Maybe since father was close with Flame, she must know where he went. Ah, maybe after this is all over, I can somehow bring it up to her. Ielo smiled. Finally I have a good reason to talk to her. Ok,ok, now, take me to Flame at Hotel Oblivion! And then she was gone. In the room where everyone else had left a trace, Ielo had left none. 

-

At the premises of the hotel, the three magical entities stood. It only took them a minute to adjust to the place, but Ielo was nowhere to be seen. Flame’s worried look had caught Mahogany’s attention. The goddess went over to hug Flame’s arm for comfort. Flame sighed. 

“I just thought, maybe she would want to come with us?” Flame started to say. “I didn’t know that trying to save ourselves would drive her away. She could have also attempted to get along with us, maybe even want to restart our relationship.” Mahogany patted Flame’s arm. 

“Maybe she’s having some second thoughts, but I’m sure she’ll come along,” Mahogany reassured her. They stood there for another minute. 

Before the crew could decide to leave or wait longer, Ielo appeared. Flame gave in internal sigh of relief. 

“Sorry for the delay, I almost forgot who you all were,” Ielo’s first comment was. Flame rolled her eyes. Did she really even need to have a small breakdown over Ielo just seconds ago?

“I’m kidding of course,” Ielo said though it sounded insincere. The others seem to ignore her previous statements and refocused. 

“The hotel’s not to far from here but,” Mahogany started, “I sense that the magic source was directed here and not by coincidence.” The group got tense. 

“Whatever or whoever’s doing this, I’m sure they don’t have any good intentions,” Mahogany continued. “So we have to be prepared to confront something that means no good, so lets be on high alert.” The group nodded in agreement.

They walked through a small forest or some type of greenery for a bit. It didn’t take long for the group to face a towering building. For some reason the sky around the building was darker than the sky over the greenery. Rain clouds moved in closer to the hotel building.   
The building itself was exactly how an abandoned place should not look. The place looked as if it wasn’t touched by weather nor person with no signs of witheredness. However at the same time gave the chilling aura of abandonment. Looking up the group spotted a bright light in one of the rooms above. That seemed to be the only light in the whole place. 

With some hesitation, the group moved closer to the building. Sprinkles of rain urged them in the hotel faster. 

Darkness covered the first floor of the hotel. Flame lit a small flame, just enough to see what was in front of them. Just like any hotel, the first floor was for checking in. A reception desk was right in front of them while the rest of the room was covered in neat furniture to welcome any guest. 

“How long are we planning to stay here?” Flame said walking up to the desk. Flame peered over the desk but didn’t find anything or anyone. 

“Looks like it’s vacant including the hotel staff themselves.” 

“Vacant with the exception of whoever’s messing with the magic source of course,” Mahogany said. “Now, let's look for a way up and anything suspicious.” 

It didn’t take the group long to find both the elevator and stairs up. Only one button was besides the elevator door so they pressed it. The elevator dinged and opened. 

“Well, I’m not going into an elevator of an abandoned hotel,” Ielo announced. The others looked a bit worried about entering the elevator that just happened to be working. 

“Guys, look over here,” Flame said as she looked at a piece on the wall besides the elevator and stairs. It was a hotel navigator. 

“It looks like this hotel has fifty-five floors,” Flame read off the map. The group sighed.   
“It doesn’t look like a lot of floors to take on stairs,” Ielo claimed. 

Mahogany faced towards the angel. Before she could ask him anything he flew out the door. Moments later he came in. His wings closed together before he spoke. 

“The light is near the very top, but happens to be on about the forty-eighth floor.” Mahogany smiled and thanked him. 

“So do you want to climb thousands of stairs or give a try at this person’s hospitality?” Mahogany said to Ielo pointing at the elevator. Ielo shrugged. “We can go wherever you want, Miss.” 

 

Once in the elevator, the group found it to be quite spacious than its exterior gave off. “It’s quite stuffy and small in here,” Ielo said. The elevator doors closed shut. A single button blinked, indicating that it had to be pressed. 

“Is this the only button here? Didn’t give us much choice,” Flame commented. Mahogany pressed the button. The light of the button stopped blinking and the elevator moved upwards slowly. A small screen that was suppose to indicate what floor they were on was replaced with ‘??’. 

“It’s just going to take us anywhere then,” the angel spoke. The group’s nerves rose. Then the elevator dinged. The two question marks were now replaced with the number five. “You’d think after the time it’d take us up higher, no?” Ielo commented. 

Slowly the doors of the elevator opened. At the other side of the doors was a hallway. The group walked out of the elevator slowly but the doors did not shut. Thunder cracked outside the hotel and a bolt of lightning that peeked through the window gave temporary light, which only kept the group on edge. 

“Do you think they are tricking us and this is the correct floor or vice versa?” Flame asked. Mahogany shrugged. 

The group stayed close as they checked for an open door. After checking all the doors on the floor, none were open. They decided that the elevator taking them to the fifth floor was a trick and walked back towards the open elevator. As they walked back they noticed that there was no stairs to be seen. A possible illusion, they thought. 

Suddenly the window at the end of the room opened. Rain poured in from the outside. However the direction of the rain pointed right at the crew. At full speed the droplets headed towards them. 

Before the bullets of rain could hit them, they evaporated and gave out a sizzle. Flame’s reaction was to throw a flame shield up. The rain was countered temporarily by the fire but flames were getting put out quickly by the rain bullets. 

“We need to go,” Flame ushered to her friends. The group turned towards the doors, which had been perfectly timed to start closing. 

“Oh, so now it’s closing,” Ielo said as she ran towards the elevator. Ielo was the first in the elevator, now watching the angel carry Mahogany towards the doors for extra speed. 

Flame right behind them put up a smaller flame shield to make sure they weren’t hurt by the rain bullets. Three-fourths of the group was now in the elevator. The doors slowly closing in as Flame ran towards them. Mahogany and the angel delayed the doors. 

As she ran, Flame felt a sharp pang on her back. Cold at first then turning into a burn, rain droplets continuously hit her. As she ran she continued to get bombarded with rain bullets and after a constant impact, fell. Mahogany and the angel nearly rushed to her side but the doors they were holding back would keep them out of the elevator. The only one that could help now was Ielo. 

Ielo watched as her sibling had fell as the rain poured and poured. She was stuck in place. Mahogany in panic and surprise watched as Ielo didn’t move. Ielo giving herself a second before she moved, saw bolts of lightning hit the room. The bolts continued as the room sparked with electricity on the carpet. 

Flame was now being attacked with rain and lightning simultaneously. As both elements attacked her Flame gave out a shrill of pain. The scream frightened Ielo. 

Mahogany looked back towards Ielo who still hadn’t reacted. “Ielo!” Mahogany called out, holding back a door, urging Ielo to move or react or to do something.

Then in the middle of where Flame fell, flames took over her body. As if power was restored to her, Flame rose slowly. Still bombarded by rain, Flame began to at first crawl then walk, and with a sudden burst, run towards the door. The rain bullets evaporated and sizzled as Flame ran. Each step she took, Flame huffed and winched in pain. 

As she reached the doors, Flame disabled the flames that overtook her and collapsed to the ground. Mahogany and the angel, instantly letting go of the doors, fell to Flame’s side. 

Ielo in shock of what had just occurred, watched as her sibling lay, huffing and winching in pain. With all her remaining energy, Flame looked up at Ielo with pain in her eyes and closed them shut. 

 

-

“I’m not pressing the button until we make sure Flame’s alright,” Mahogany said and broke the silence in the room. No one really knew how to react to the sudden attack on them. Ielo was still completely shaken up, especially since her sibling had passed out in front of her, while she did nothing to help the situation. 

Ielo stared at the gods on the floor. Mahogany and the angel were crouched near an unconscious Flame. The angel worked his healing powers on Flame as the group remained quiet. His body glowed as he healed Flame and the feathers on his wings swiftly moved giving him an angelic look. 

“I’m using up most of my power to quickly regenerate her to a conscious state,” the angel said. “I’m afraid I’ll be practically useless after this, and Flame won’t have most of her power back, with only enough energy for her to move.” Mahogany nodded. Ielo stepped back from them. 

After a few minutes passed. Flame began to regain consciousness. She slowly tried to pick herself up, but struggled to do so. With the help of her friends, Flame sat up. Ielo looked away. 

“How are you feeling, spark?” Mahogany asked Flame. Flame rubbed her head a little and nodded as a response. “Could be better, but thank you guys.” 

Ielo peeked slightly over her shoulder, avoiding eye contact with Flame. She could see some scratches and burn marks from the rain bullets. Ielo winched at seeing that and looked away. 

“I’m so sorry I got hurt guys,” Flame began to apologize. “I should of reacted faster to that, and then I was so slow to run, I’ve got to get back to training, and it took me so long to recover and made you guys worry and-”. Mahogany put her hand up. Ielo looked back again to see why her sibling had stopped. 

“Do not apologize, Flame,” Mahogany said not letting her continue. “This situation was unpredictable and no one’s fault here. You helped us get out alive, and saved us from the attack. You have done enough. You are enough. Thank you for trying your best.” Flame sighed and closed her eyes. She didn’t speak as her friends embraced her. 

Ielo was lost. Lost in her own thoughts. Even after all her power her sibling still felt powerless? How could she even feel that way after she had every advantage in hand? Her own thoughts were interrupted by the sound of movement behind her. 

“We have no choice but to go up,” Mahogany said. “However we will try to avoid stepping out of the elevator, since it seems like the safe place here.” 

The button was pressed and the elevator moved upwards. Then it moved down. 

“Oh no this is bad, we’re going down,” Flame said as she held herself on the railing. The others looked at each other in confusion. 

Slowly the elevator descended down, no number yet on the small screen. The elevator seemed to go down lower and longer. 

“Don’t you guys think we passed the first floor already?” Flame said. Suddenly the elevator dinged. The ‘??’ were now replaced with ‘-21’. 

“FLOOR NEGATIVE TWENTY-ONE?” the group yelled. 

“This place really has negative floors huh,” Flame joked. The doors slowly opened once again, however this time when they peered out, they saw nothing. 

Outside the doors, a pure void of black lay. 

“No one step out,” Mahogany instructed. “Not planning on doing so,” Ielo replied. 

Then suddenly the doors began to close. 

“The doors are closing even if we didn’t move out?” Mahogany questioned. Slowly as the doors closed a thump from below was heard. An arm clutched the floor of the elevator. It gripped the floor as if it was trying to get in. 

“Someone’s trying to get in!” Mahogany yelled. She quickly went over to help them.

“Mahogany wait what if-” Flame called out to her, but it was too late. Mahogany grabbed the hand but as she touched it, gave her a small shock. Mahogany flinched in response and let go of the hand. The arm then fell into the void as the doors closed shut. 

“Why would you even grab a hand that came from a void?” Ielo asked from shock and fear. Mahogany held her hand from the pain the shock gave her.

“It could of been a person that needed help,” Mahogany responded. Ielo shook her head.

“This place is cursed! It was most likely going to be a bad thing!” Ielo continued. Mahogany looked away.

“Bad things,” Mahogany paused, “And bad people need help.” The room was quiet.

Ielo didn't speak and looked away. Flame watched as her sibling continued to turn her back on everything. Even after my attempts to help her she still turns away, Flame thought. 

The button was pushed once again. This time the elevator went up. It emerged slowly but for a longer period of time. They seemed to be heading up the right way. The exhaustion between the angel and Flame became apparent. 

“Just a hold on a little longer,” Mahogany assured them. Hold on, they all thought. The elevator began to come to a slow stop. Then they heard a ding. 

They crew looked up. The number in display was ‘47’. This could be it, they all thought. The doors once again slowly opened up. The forty-seventh floor was just as dark as the fifth floor. The room was only lit up by the flashes of lightning that came from the outside the window. 

“Ok, it’s not floor forty-seven, so if angel’s prediction was right, it’s got to be either forty-eight or forty-nine” Mahogany presumed. 

“So should we continue pressing the button and let us randomly find the correct floor or-?”Flame asked. Ielo could see that her sibling was trying her best to come up with a plan and take action. 

“That doesn’t seem very logical to wait around for the button to decide where we should go,” Ielo challenged. Flame seemed to ignore that. 

“Or should we just stay on this floor, face whatever’s here, and check at the edge of the window for light above or below us?” Flame gave a second suggestion. Mahogany nodded. 

“I’d rather we get through this now, and look out from the window,” Mahogany decided. The others nodded. 

“Ok, great, but this time we are going to go one by one and close by,” Mahogany said. “No one’s getting left behind or hurt with me anymore.” 

The first one out of the elevator was Flame, even though her friends insisted on her to not be first. She walked out slowly since she was instructed to do so and energy wise, and kept close to the elevator. Nothing happened.

She shuffled closer, trying to get as near to the window as possible. Yet still nothing happened. 

“It looks clear, but don’t come out yet,” Flame said. She continued to tip toe closer to the window. Still nothing happened. By now Flame had reached the window. Opening the window, Flame peeked up above. She gasped. 

“What is it Flame?” Mahogany called out. Flame turned around with a smile. 

“ANGEL DUDE, YOU WERE RIGHT, IT IS THE FORTY-EIGHTH FLOOR!” Flame yelled out. A smile spread on the angel’s face. He glided out from the elevator over to the window to see for himself. He indeed saw a light shine out of the floor directly above them. The angel looked over to Mahogany and Ielo, who were still in the elevator, and gave them a thumbs up. 

As Mahogany stepped out she got a hold of Ielo’s arm. Ielo flinched and pushed her away. However even if Ielo had flinched, it wasn’t Ielo who had pushed Mahogany away. Before Mahogany could react, she was being shoved out of the elevator, watching as Ielo stood in shock. As Mahogany fell to the floor she caught a glimpse of a dark figure standing right behind Ielo. 

The doors of the elevators closed immediately and the elevator moved upwards. 

 

As the doors closed, Ielo had no idea if she were the one who had shoved Mahogany away. Then she heard laughter. I’m cruel but that was definitely not me, she thought. 

“A person so cold they threw out their own friends,” a voice taunted. Ielo backed up against one of the elevator walls. She looked around. 

“They are not my friends,” she replied. The voice gave out another laugh. 

“You really are so cold-hearted.” Ielo gritted her teeth. She didn’t want to respond. 

The elevator ding startled her and she looked up. The number shown was ‘48’. I’m here, she thought. 

The doors opened up slowly as before. Ielo was now shaking. She was here now, the place where the magic source was at the time. Move, she told herself. Fix this all. 

She stepped out slowly. The bright light nearly blinded Ielo. As her two feet stepped out the elevator closed. Oh no, she thought. Now that she was trapped in a room, not a floor with multiple rooms, she had to be on guard. She quickly sculpted out a spear made out of her ice. 

This floor was it. The one they needed. The bright room was well decorated and furnished showing sign that someone was definitely here. Ielo looked around, still walking slowly and spear clutched close to her.

She kept glancing around until she caught sight of another light. Ielo walked closer and saw that it was indeed the magic source. However,it was inside an obsidian crate. It looks like this is keeping it from functioning correctly, Ielo thought. 

Before Ielo could even do a thing she was knocked back. As she nearly fell back she saw a shadow move past her. Ielo quickly regained her balance. 

“Hey you shadow monster, come out and stop playing games,” she provoked. She moved close to a wall for safety. 

“Games?” the voice asked. “I love games, especially card games, so many possibilities in them.” 

Ielo glanced around, now in more panic. She looked besides her and was caught staring at a pair of eyes on the wall. She bolted away from the wall and threw out a layer of ice to cover the wall. The shadow disappeared. 

She was now in the middle of the room. Ielo sprayed the walls with ice to cover the shadow. She didn’t see it anymore. She sighed, trying to catch her breath. 

“So,” said the same voice behind her. Ielo turned around frantically, holding out her spear. Her eyes widened. 

Ielo now saw the true form of the figure. They looked human like except for their eyes, which were covered by a mask and glowing white. They wore a magenta vest which was the most noticeable thing Ielo noticed from them. Their hair was ruffled out and the strings of the mask fell upon their shoulders. They gave Ielo a wide smile to greet her. 

“What or who are you?” Ielo asked. She pointed her spear closer to them. They held up their hands in response and chuckled. 

“I am,” they started, “The master of cards.” Multicolored cards suddenly appeared around around their hands. They all had a different number on them, each with a different image. 

“Who are you and what are you doing here and what exactly do you want with the magic source?” Ielo questioned still holding up her spear but still visibly shaking. 

“That’s alot of questions that I’ll vaguely answer because that would reveal too much of the plot,” the Master of Cards replied. Ielo tensed up. 

“I have been sent here,” they said closing and sitting on the crate that carried the magic source. “I won’t say by who of course, because if you get out here alive, will get into lots and lots of trouble.” 

Ielo glared at them. “Go on,” Ielo pushed. 

“Well with any source of magic, we want it for power, and of course our ye old and withered boss would want it,” they spoke. “However we did take note that your friends, or rather crew, would come investigate. So of course we had to stop them.” 

“What we didn’t expect,” they continued. “Was a fourth member.” 

That’s right. Ielo was brought on at the last second. Ielo smiled. 

“Which is devastating for us at first, since we set up some luxury suite rooms for them all to “enjoy.” 

“What do you mean at first?” Ielo asked. Technically she thought they had the upper hand since they hadn’t expected her. 

The Master of Cards grinned. “This is the part where you might want to take a seat,” they said as they held out a card. They then tossed it at Ielo who raised up her spear to block it. Right as it touched her spear the card dissolved away. 

“I was only going to offer you a seat,” they said. “You must be tired.” 

Ielo shook her head. “I don’t rest or lie around while I fight my foes,” she said. 

“See!” the Master of Cards sat up. “We don’t have to be foes! Then that way you can rest!”

Ielo didn’t answer. The Master of Cards shrugged. 

“What I mean is,” they said, “Join us.” That certainly started Ielo. 

“We could use someone like you,” they said. Ielo gave them a disgusted look. 

“What do you mean “someone like me?” she asked sharply. 

“Oh you know exactly how you are,” the masked figure taunted. “You don’t show remorse for anyone, especially your own blood.” 

That statement stung Ielo. What? I do have concern for Flame! I’ve been tracking how powerful she is and it’s certainly eviable. I do have concern for her!

“Then,” they continued, “You want everything done perfect and fast. You are also plenty powerful though it doesn’t out due your blood. However we can help you become more stronger and even more noticeable here! All you’ve got to say is that you’re in.” 

They held out multiple cards towards Ielo. 

“Pick a card,” they asked. 

 

-

On the floor below them the remaining crew was in panic. When Mahogany was pushed to the floor, the others’ reaction was to rush to her side. As they rushed over they heard an almost immediate stop to the elevator above them. 

“Did she push you?” was Flame’s first question. Mahogany shook her head. 

“No I saw someone or something behind her, it must have been them,” she responded. 

Flame now panicked. “So now Ielo’s stuck with, with whatever that is!” 

“Unfortunately yes, but the elevator stopped directly above us so she’s not far up,” Mahogany answered. “Now, let’s hurry up there.” 

They ran towards the window looking up at the light shining directly above. 

“Angel,” Mahogany called, “Do you think you have enough strength to fly one of us up there?”

He shook his head. “I gave up some of my energy for Flame’s fast regeneration. I’m not even sure I can even fly myself up there.” Mahogany nodded. 

“If I hadn’t of gotten hurt,” Flame began to say. Mahogany went over to her.

“Do not worry Flame, this isn’t a problem. I can levitate us remember?” Mahogany reassured her. Flame nodded. She wished she could do more but this was beyond her strength. 

Mahogany closed her two eyes. The one on her forehead stayed open. Mahogany’s hair lifted up as Flame slowly began to levitate and her two feet left the ground. As if flying, Flame was out the window. 

Flame looked down below. Big mistake on her behalf. Above rain poured and below a big drop. Flame continued to slowly levitate up. As she reached the window of the forty-eigth floor, she felt a different shift of energy take over her. 

Mahogany winched in pain in the floor below. Her arms now shaking and glowing yellow. She was losing control of her levitation. Flame outside was becoming unstable and stopped moving upwards. 

“Mahogany!” she called down. “What’s going on?” Suddenly Flame began to fall. Mahogany’s levitation was weak and she fell again. As Flame felt herself fall, she noticed that she was caught. 

“I got you, spark.” The angel’s quick reaction to catch her coat,which saved her from falling. Tightly pulling Flame up, the angel brought her inside the forty-seventh floor again. 

“Mahogany are you okay?” Flame went over to her. Mahogany’s arms were shaking as she looked up.

“I think that shock from that arm did a number on me.” 

Flame sighed. “We’re gonna have to find another way up-,” Flame began to say before Mahogany suddenly got up.   
“No, I can do it again. I wasn’t expecting any pain which is why I suddenly let go,” Mahogany explained. 

“I don’t want you to hurt yourself by simply doing this,” Flame said. Mahogany held up her hand and shook her head. 

“I’d prefer we get up there fast than a little electricity running through me,” she said. “And besides, we’ve got to save us all.” 

-

“You want me to join you even though you practically just insulted me?” Ielo commented. “Get your filthy cards away from me if you even imagine me joining ‘a side’. 

The Master of Cards’ expression changed. “Did you just call my cards filthy?” 

“You know all I wanted was to give you a life changing opportunity but then you call me out on ‘insulting’ you by insulting me?” they said louder. Ielo stepped back. 

“I’m done being ‘serious’ with you, I think it’s time for us to play a fun game,” they announced.

Several cards appeared all facing towards Ielo. They then shuffled by encircling around Ielo. After a quick shuffle they returned back to the hands of their owner. 

“Hope you’re fast enough to keep up with me!” they called out. “Card number 34, the soldier!” 

They swiped the card downwards to the floor and after a puff of smoke appeared a green soldier. The soldier carried a gun in their arms and pointed it right at Ielo. They shot straight towards her.

Ielo was able to block the shot by putting up an ice shield. Luckily the wall was able to withstand it. The Master of Cards looked amused. 

“I’ll bet more coin if you shoot faster,” they called out towards the soldier. The soldier’s shooting pace increased. Fortunately Ielo was able to dodge the shots aimed at her by placing up her ice shields, however she knew she couldn’t keep it up for long. 

She decided to try to take out the card holder instead of wasting her time acting defensively. Ielo put up one more ice shield before she placed her palms on the floor. 

The floor then shined of ice all over, perfect mobility for Ielo to be able to move towards her enemy. The ice shield broke in time for Ielo to move out. Ielo’s own ice couldn’t slip her and let her glide for mobility. 

Ielo glided towards her target, the shots aimed at her were not fast enough to hit her. Once the Master of Cards noticed what Ielo was trying to do, they moved swiftly away. 

The ice spread out on the floor gave the Master of Cards caution to try not to slip as every dodge they took moving away, almost caused them to fall. Ielo smiled when she noticed this. Now was the time to act. 

Ielo moved more aggressively toward her opponent, provoking them to move away faster. Finally, the Master of Cards had lost their balance. They fell and slid, hitting a wall. The cards spilled out of their pocket. 

Ielo took her attacker being down as an opportunity to shut down the soldier’s shots. She threw a small ice dagger to the soldier. It hit directly on it’s gun and ice overtook it, causing the soldier to freeze. 

Ielo turned around to face her down opponent. Now facing towards them, Ielo stomped on the ground causing ice stalagmites to surround them. They were trapped. Ielo leaned down to pick up some cards that spilled closest to her. 

“Odd cards you’ve got here,” Ielo commented. “It’d be a shame if they got ruined, you know, by conditions such as weather, tears, or if they simply got lost as well.” Ielo glanced at some cards in hand and shook them menacingly. This caused the Master of Cards to give out a little cry. 

“Please don’t do anything to my cards, I beg of you!” they pleaded. Ielo looked down at them. 

“Then be-” she began to say as she caught sight of a familiar face at the window. Flame was levitating towards the window trying to get in. She opened the window and got in. Once her feet touched the ground the ice began to melt. 

“Flame! Watch my ice you’re melting it!” Ielo yelled at her. The ice around the Master of Cards quickly melted away. 

“Flame,quick help me capture this weirdo, before they-” Ielo began to demand before she heard a shatter. The soldier! She thought. 

“Flame watch the soldier!” Ielo called out. Flame’s reaction to the call was delayed as the soldier that was unfrozen began to aim at Flame. 

This time, with no doubts in her head, Ielo ran over to her sibling. Quickly passing by she made a trail of ice to let her glide faster than the speed of the shot. Time seemed to slow as Ielo began to form a shield for her sibling as she slid right in front of her. Ielo closed her eyes shut. 

The shot pierced through several layers of the ice wall Ielo formed. Ielo opened her eyes when she didn’t feel anything hit her. She looked up to see that the shot was blocked by the thinnest layer of ice. She let her breath go. Then she looked up at Flame, who was in great shock that Ielo had protected her. 

“Flame, I’m gonna need you help me play snowball fight with this soldier,” Ielo told her. Flame, still shaken up, obliged. Ielo set up another but more stronger wall to shield them both. They both laid low as the ice was getting pierced away by the shots. Flame gave a quick glance at her target a threw a ball of fire. One of the easiest tricks in the books, Ielo thought. 

The fireball hurled through and hit the soldier’s card at its feet. The edges of the card slowly curled up. A shriek emerged from behind the wall. 

“Card 54 return!” the siblings heard. They looked at each other knowing the coast was clear from shots. They emerged from behind the wall, together at full force towards the Master of Cards, who was frantically recollecting their cards. 

As they gathered their cards, they noticed some shadows appear over them. They looked up to see the twin elements looking down at them both with arms folded. 

“Game over,” Ielo said. She made a small cage of ice to contain the Master of Cards while she and Flame began to pick up the cards. The window of the forty-eighth floor opened up again, a gust of wind blowing in as the angel and Mahogany flew and levitated in. 

As they touched the floor, the final cards the twins were collecting flew up and out the window. A pang was heard from the ice jail. 

“Oops, our bad!” Ielo called. Mahogany and the angel glanced over.

“Is that the person behind the magic sources’ behavior?” Mahogany asked Ielo and Flame.   
Flame shrugged but Ielo answered. “They only told me they were an...accomplice.” 

“An accomplice? To whom?” Mahogany asked Ielo. Ielo shook her head and answered her, “They only told me something about power and that they’d never reveal who they work for. The rest was some odd love for their cards.” Mahogany nodded and headed towards the jailed Master of Cards. 

“Can we melt this, Ielo?” Mahogany asked her. No one had ever asked her permission to melt her ice so she instantly agreed. Flame lit a small flame and chipped away at the jail of ice. 

Once the ice jail was mostly melted, they group could see a sad Master of Cards. They held a single card in their hand, however it looked distinctly different in color ,since it was black and red, compared to the gaudy images on their other cards. 

“Why, hello there!” Mahogany greeted them. “Are you alright?” They looked up.   
“My cards are gone,” they answered after a few seconds. Mahogany nodded.   
“But I see you’ve got one left right there in your hand,” she said. They shook their head. 

They held it up a bit to show a skull on the back of the card. “This isn’t mine, and I don’t want it.” 

Mahogany’s head tilted in confusion. “And why do you not want it, besides that it’s not yours?” 

They looked deeply at the card. “It’s a sign that I am being controlled and I don’t want that. Which is why-” they said as they held the card in front of them. 

“I will choose to destroy it,” they said. Before Mahogany could interrogate any further they ripped the cards to shreds. The shredded pieces fell from their hands and onto the ground.

The Master of Card’s eyes closed slowly as their body became limp. The group was stunned into silence. 

“Are they?” Flame began to question but Mahogany shook her head.   
“It looks like the poor soul was under a spell and we just helped them break it,” she answered. 

Help them break a spell? Helped someone? Her?, Ielo thought. A rush of emotions ran through Ielo. Even if she wasn’t the one that broke the spell, she had helped break it. For the first time in a while, Ielo felt a bit accomplished.

 

Mahogany using some of her last energy, picked up the Master of Card’s body and presumably sent it to her establishment. Sparkles fell to the floor from the teleportation. 

Mahogany sighed. The group felt that. They had finally made it to the source. After removing it from the obsidian crate, Mahogany reset the magic source’s to a limited amount of respawns. 

“I can’t control it from respawning but, I can keep it close to us and far from evil,” she said. 

-

Outside the hotel, the rain had cleared, though it was still dark out. As the crew walked toward the greenery they looked back at now dark hotel. Flame caught up with Ielo’s fast paced walk. Ielo felt a tap on her shoulder but didn’t give a harsh reaction since she could hear steps behind her. 

“Hey, Ielo,” Flame said as she caught up with her sibling. Ielo stopped and turned to Flame.

“I just wanted to say, thank you for saving me on the forty-eighth floor. You really helped save a life or two there,” Flame said. Ielo liked the feeling when hearing that she had helped. So she gave her sibling a warm smile. 

“I had to help you, I didn’t want to see you get hurt again after the fifth floor, which, reminds me- I’m sorry, “ Ielo responded. Flame smiled. 

“I’m sorry for not reacting or helping then and before. I’m sorry for my rudeness-,” Ielo was getting choked up now. Flame hugged her.

“I dislike this Ielo, Flame,” Ielo finally said. Flame hugged her sibling tighter. 

“We’re working through her.” 

 

 

Wrap Up: 

Of course the ice goddess wasn’t redeemed right away. It took her time and the help of friends to soon crack the ice that shielded her heart. The time of Ielo in this story is a long time from present day, but when looking back, Ielo noticed her progress through many factors. The Master of Cards was reborned to ‘Cardmaster’, name being suggested by Flame. Yes we did gave Cardmaster their cards back even though some were lost that day, though they were content with starting over. While watching the new card holder’s life, Ielo noticed how much she had helped on that day at the Hotel Oblivion. As time passed, Ielo became closer to her sibling and even got to the idea of finding their father. However, that adventure is a story for another day for them. I wish you all the heart to getting to the end of your path. 

Love,   
M.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it is important to note that numbers are indeed important, as well as some usage of certain words. besides that uh ty yall for reading this im like both proud and exhausted


	5. Monsters Under The Bed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> thinkin abt... introducing new characters even though my 500 other ones still need their shit. Anyway this is how i wanna say DB and Desvelo met. I know it's all vague but lmao wouldn't be my writing if it wasn't vague. Uh this is still a part of the og story dw yall :))
> 
> also this is a possible part one??? idk we will see whatever happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof idc abt editing anymore , tho i had fun attempting to write this all out. have fun ;;;; also if somethings off, i literally wrote this months apart rip,,

Usually when DB danced she’d have her group of other usual street performers. They were granted permission to dance outside of a local restaurant, letting them gather a small crowd at most. However, that night the group was able to capture the attention of many customers, gaining cheers and tips; it was a successful night indeed. 

When the group announced its retiring for the night and the rather large crowd dispersed, each member eagerly collected their earnings. DB was particularly excited to see that her small earnings cup was just about full. The group sat near each other, wanting to add up their totals from that successful night. 

Pouring out the earnings, DB counted the bigger bills first. She gained twenty-seven dollars in bills since someone was kind enough to put in a twenty. DB smiled at that. May the gods bless them! she thanked as she began to count the coins. As she separated the coins by value, she noticed an odd looking coin with a skull. 

“Gods, what edgy arcade did this come from?” she said to herself as she tossed it aside. She finished counting up her total earnings and joined the gang for a final count. The group calculated with a total of $113.26 all together. They congratulated each other for the successful night and began to say their goodbyes. 

Saying their goodbyes, the group gathered their stuff and departed. DB grabbed her backpack, double checking if she still had all her belongings and also putting her money away. She checked every zipper before leaving but then noticed a loose coin in a different place than the rest of her money. She picked it up and noticed it was the same skull coin from when she was counting her earnings. 

“Hey do you guys know what this is?” she asked. DB looked around to ask one of her group members about the coin, but she was the only one around. She sighed and gathered her stuff, making her way home, coin still in hand. 

As she walked home, DB inspected the coin closer. She now noticed with the streetlight shining down, that the coin was black and that the skull was lined with a gold color. 

“What a weird looking coin,” she said to it as she twiddled it with her fingers. Suddenly she received a small but jolting shock on her fingers up to her lower arm. “What the hell?” she said with the coin still in hand, massaged her arm. Gods, I hope that was a really bad cramp and not my bones getting back at me at the mere age of nineteen.  
-

 

She had made it into her room safely. She was lucky that her mother wasn’t awake watching those shitty black and white cowboy films, if not she’d receive another lesson. DB tossed her bag near her bed and kicked off her shoes. 

Sitting on her bed, DB inspected the coin again. She tossed it up and down a couple of times before placing it right beside her nightstand, then picked up a brush to begin braiding her hair. Once she finished her nightly routine, she called it a night. 

Thrist had woken her up, a little later into the night. DB opened her eyes as she regained consciousness to get the usual couple of water bottles beside her bed. As she got up to grab one, DB realized she couldn’t move. She was still lying down in bed. 

She attempted to move or even cry something out but she was frozen in place. Aw crap, sleep paralysis right as I’m thirsty. She attempted to move one more time but gave it up when she realized she was too tired to try. 

Just as she closed her eyes, something caught the corner of her eye. She was being watched. She looked besides her to see a pair of yellow eyes looking down at her. Oh, what the fuck is that? she thought. She continued to inspect the shadow more noticing that it didn’t have any arms and floated, as well as it’s hair did too. 

That’s cute. It’s like a little girl or something. Just as she had thought that the shadow gave her a big toothy white grin. A creepy little girl, she added. The shadowy figure continued to loom over her. DB was too exhausted to attempt any movement at the time so she decided that sleeping the paralysis away would be best. 

When the morning came, DB felt just fine. She reached over to her water bottle so she could finally get a drink and noticed the skull coin was still in its place. As she reached for it, she heard a knock at her door. It was probably her mom. Just as she got up to open and answer the door, her mom walked in. 

“Buenos dias, mijita,” her mother said. “I left some leftovers from last night out for you to heat up for breakfast. I hope that’s okay for you.” 

DB nodded. “Yes ma, that’s fine, thank you.” Her mother smiled. 

“I know you were out late last night but I’ll forgive you if you don’t go out tonight. I want to have dinner with you for atleast one night this week. Me and Scalene missed you last night.” 

DB laughed. “I really doubt you let the lizard sit on your crochet chair comforters.”  
“That’s true, I didn’t but she sat in her habitat happily with me. Oh and that reminds me, please feed her before you go to work. I’d do it but I’m already late too.” 

“Yes, mama,” DB said. “I’ll do that and I’ll stay for dinner.” Her mother smiled.

“Gracias, mija,” she told her daughter and kissed her cheek. DB hugged her mother back. 

As her mother walked out the door she quickly turned around. “Oh and if you could pick up some tortillas from the liquor store, I left ten dollars on top of the table.” DB nodded. 

“Bye, mija!” her mother said before closing the door. That was basically DB’s every morning but she wouldn’t trade it for anything else.  
-

The past two couple of days passed by quickly. DB went to work at the record shop, did her chores, and even stayed for dinner with her mom. Tonight she let her mother know she would stay late, though she was sure her mom would forget. As she packed her stuff, DB noticed the coin that was still on her nightstand. She hesitated to pick it up, but tossed it right in her bag. 

DB waited a little more for her mother to get home from work so she could remind her where she was heading out to and even fed Scalene as she waited. She stared at the lizard, who was staring at her back. Who even named you? I hate math. DB thought as she heard the door open. She got up to greet her mom and even help her with the bags she was carrying. 

“I had to stop by the store before they closed, I had some coupons with me.” DB took some of her bags and began to help put away the food. “I hope you can stay for dinner, oh maybe you can help me make this its-” DB sighed. 

“Ama, I told you in the morning, I’m not gonna be here for dinner. I also kinda ate already.” 

“Ah, I forgot, I’m sorry,” her mom said. “I’ll just make recalentado then, just please be back at a good time okay?” DB nodded. 

“I’ll see ma.” 

-  
The group had just began to gather together, signing up for spotlight turns. She signed up to be up around 11pm. The late diners usually passed by at that time and she definitely wanted to show off her new routine. Tonight she was hoping she could try dancing without her group; be solo since she generally preferred it that way. 

The next few couple hours she watched her friends dance from the side. She saw several new dancers perform some moves she had never really seen put together well, but she was impressed. DB sat back trying to not envy the dancers but keeping mindful that she was a pretty good dancer as well. 

The small crowd that grew slightly bigger as the night went on clapped and cheered. DB looked up to see the person that was dancing had finished and was collecting tips and compliments. Guess it’s my turn now, thought to herself as she checked her phone for the time. 11:12. Kind of late but it had stalled enough for DB to prepare herself.

DB stood up and walked over to the person who was running sound. “Soundbite you’ve got the playlist right?” she asked patting the DJ on the back. They rolled their eyes. 

“I did, but I really don’t want to play Rasputin in this crowd or in any ever,” Soundbite sighed. DB laughed. “It’s not Rasputin I swear,” she said as she made her way over to the middle of the crowd. The familiar beat of Rasputin began to play from the speakers. Soundbite looked over to her. “It’s a remix!” she shouted as she turned to the crowd. 

She scanned the crowd; gathering the psyched up vibe for her performance. Below her mouth mask she smiled. Though she was a little nervous, she knew this was her scene. This is the most perfect thing in the world, a place full of people looking to have a good time, a place I am able to be me and that I can express myself! she thought to herself. 

Throwing together her choreographed dance, the crowd cheered. She spitefully looked over to Soundbite who shook their head, but then stumbled to turn off the music. 

“Hey what, dude, why’d you-” she said before seeing that they were pointing at the dispersing crowd. A small comotion had sparked in the crowd. DB looked over to people being shoved aside and even hearing a couple of angry comments. As the crowd noticed DB approach them they made way for her. Now DB could see the figure who’d cause the comotion. 

“Hey you, you can’t just be shoving and pushing people,” DB called to them. A quick turn of their head, the person seemed to be fuming with anger. The crowd moved back further. Quickly removing their red-pink hair away from their face, DB was now faced with bright green eyes. 

Once the crowd noticed the strangeness of the distinctly colored eyes, many began to get away. The fuming mad stranger slowly stepped closer to DB. Turning their head to inspect her, they reached over to her shoulder. 

DB quickly smacked their hand out of the way, cautiously moving away from this stranger. “Hey, man, I don’t know what the heck is your problem, but let me have some personal space here.”  
The stranger furiously shook their head, now somehow showing more anger and frustration than before. 

“No, no, you are not him,” they said now shaking. DB cringed at that. “No, I most certainly am not he,” she replied. The person’s eyes now met with hers. 

“But you have him, he’s here,” they still dragged on. DB shook her head. “Why are you hiding him, what is he asking of you?” 

“I have no idea of who you’re talking about, or what I supposedly have-” 

“STOP COVERING FOR HIM, YOU ARE HIDING HIM!” they now screamed, their eyes looking more rabid and clearly annoyed with anything DB replied with. 

DB looked even more confused, unsure of what to do. “I, don’t- I don’t have anything,” she said. The angry stranger still rabidly looked at her. “Actually all I have is, this,” she said, throwing her hands up around, to reveal the now abandoned scene. 

Before anyone could continue, a clink was heard on the ground. Both of them looked down to see the gold and black skull coin rolling then settling down on the ground. 

“What the fuc-” DB was cut off to see the stranger lunging to the coin. DB looked down and for some reason that even she did not know, kicked the coin farther away. The person fell down with a thud, then rabidly met eyes with DB again. The furious stranger now displayed their gleaming fangs at her. Oh shit, she thought as she was pushed down to the ground. 

A sharp pain on her side made DB wince as she attempted to check if she had broken anything. The stranger crawled toward the direction the coin had been kicked to. Anger and the adrenaline to fight back stirred in DB as she ignored her worry over herself and grabbed the monster-demon thing’s leg. The same angry and rabid face turned to her then gritted their teeth at her. DB gripped their leg harder which only forced the demon to fight harder. 

Eventually the demon was able to pull away from her grip, but now had a new target in mind. DB who was still on the ground, trying to recollect herself, was once again tossed down to the ground. However this time her head had gotten the ground. The pain from her side was now more prominent to the back of her head. Before she could even move the demon was already on top of her and holding her down. 

DB looked up with hazed vision to make out the demon’s gritted fangs. Too exhausted and in pain to fight, DB attempted to keep her eyes open. The demon smiled as their grip on DB became more sharp and harder for her to move or react. 

“Now, if you weren’t actually hiding this “Desvelo” you wouldn’t have gotten in my way,” they said to DB who was now wheezing in order to breathe. “Did you know the punishment of hiding a night terror because your weak attempt to keep it away from me, was too pathetic, too easy. Is this how much you think of your life?”  
DB began to harshly cough and wheeze. The demon sharply removed the mask DB had on. The demon scanned her face. 

“See according to the old withered one, the punishment of hiding a demon as powerful as a night terror is, well, taking something away from either the hider or demon. And since I haven’t found Desvelo yet, I’ll settle for, you.” 

DB struggled even more to keep awake and began fighting to keep her eyes open and maybe even attempt a fight. A reflection of the necklace dangling from the demon’s neck shone in her eyes which made her wince more. The demon peered over her mouth. Lining a shape around her mouth, DB could feel blood slowly dripping down. The demon continued to poke around it. 

“I see you dance, so maybe you don’t sing, your voice is spared.” the demon commented without making eye contact. Still scanning over her the demon now glanced at her eyes. 

“Your eyes-” they said before being kicked by DB, though they didn’t react to it. “You have very pretty eyes,” they said removing the strand of hair over DB’s other eye. Lining around the eye, just as they had done to her mouth caused blood to drip down her cheek. DB began thrashing and fighting back the demon. DB was now wide awake. 

 

Though her vision was hazy in both of her eyes, she felt a force, a pull from her right eye. Her vision began to disappear from that eye. 

“Now I don't know if I can take both your eyes, or even just one, so I’ll settle for this-” the demon couldn’t even continue before they were tossed to the side by a force. The tenseness left DB as both she and the demon looked over to see who had saved her. 

Only a couple of feet over, a familiar sleep paralysis demon girl stood with one arm in front of her. The demon squinted at the demon girl’s figure. The little girl from my sleep paralysis? DB thought in shock of the whole nightmare scene. 

“Desve...is that you in that pathetic form? What happened to you? You’re so different,” the demon called out. The demon girl didn’t reply. 

This made the demon chuckle and slowly crawl over to her. “Oh so you’re gonna be silent, ok, anything you say will be held against you, eh? I’m sure whatever you say you’re gonna have to explain it to-” 

“I’m not going back, Fray.” The voice was certainly not of a young girl’s. 

“I don’t give a crap of whatever angsty reason you’ve got for leaving, but I certainly cannot come back empty handed,” Fray said as they jumped towards Desvelo.  
Desvelo shifted away from them, timing the right time to move away. The demon was now on the floor, slightly laughing. 

“That was a test to see if that form portrays your true power as a night terror,” they responded. “Now since I need to get this over with,” they said as a black fog overcame them, or was them, as green eyes shone from the black cloud. 

The cloud overtook Desvelo and for a few seconds DB could not see them. Then the cloud began to slowly fade away. Arms made from the cloud dragged and clawed at the ground. 

“DESVE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” the familiar voice of Fray cried out. Desvelo was now visible to DB and to her surprise, saw Desvelo inhale the cloud. Quickly opening what seemed to be a portal of some sort, Desvelo released the cloud into it. 

“It was foolish of me to do that in front of a night terror, but I’ll come back more powerful, and you know it, Desve,” Fray’s voice faded out from the portal. Desvelo laughed. “I could have just ended them right there.” 

The pain from DB’s body came back, as she laid back down. A shadow appeared over her. It was Desvelo but this time back to her more ghostly form. Desvelo waved at her. DB closed her eyes. 

“Yep, I hit my head too hard and I’m in a coma, goodnight,” DB said. Desvelo laughed. 

“Yea you did hit your head pretty hard, which I’m sorry I couldn’t react faster to save you,” Desvelo apologize. DB looked at her in confusion. 

“Yea before you ask anything, I’ll help get you home,” Desvelo said looking around. 

“The coin thing’s over there,” DB said to her. Desve nodded in thanks and brought over the coin into her hands then handing it in front of DB, 

“This is for you to take care of for now,” Desvelo said. DB accepted the coin without question. She was too exhausted to think about it. 

-

“I honestly did not understand or even comprehend what you just tried to explain to me right now,” DB said to Desvelo as she kicked off her shoes. She held an ice pack to her head, wanting to avoid coming up with a story and worrying her mom. 

DB sat down on her bed, playing with the coin in her hand. “And what’s this for?” she asked Desvelo.  
“That’s like...hm,” Desvelo thought for a second, “Like think of it as if I was a genie and that was my lamp. However I am no genie, and I can’t grant wishes...the most I’ll grant you is nightmares.” She chuckled at that. DB also laughed. 

“Anyway, since it looks like you’re having a pretty rough night, I’ll leave you with this: Fray, that demon, they are gonna come back, possibly worse and even though I’ve practically got you roped into this, I’m gonna need your help,” Desvelo asked. DB sighed removing the ice pack. 

“Honestly I can’t really object, or even run from this,” DB replied, “And then that creepy demon is after me, since I owe ‘em something now.” Desvelo smiled and then a bit of silence overtook the room. 

“Also,” DB continued in order to break the silence, “Whenever you’re up for it, fill me in about the details about you. If I’m gonna be on your side, I wanna see what I could do to help.” Desvelo smiled. 

“I’ll be here for a bit so I’d too would like to get to know about you too,” Desvelo responded and DB smiled at that. 

“I’m gonna attempt to sleep now okay? Wake me up if there’s a monster under my bed or in the closet or something.” 

“Will try,” Desvelo said. DB shrugged and turned away to sleep. Desvelo waited a couple minutes to watch over her sleep. 

“It’s going to be hard to explain this all to you since even I don’t have the details, or the whole story,” Desvelo spoke to her back. “I’ve never known my origins to why I even exist. All I know, there’s a revolution on the rise.” Desvelo looked down to the skull coin that was on DB’s dresser. 

“Well, good night and sweet dreams,” Desvelo departed back into her safe. 

DB patted her right eye, attempting to soothe the pain the scars had left. “Good night,” she whispered, “Sweet dreams.”


	6. Diary Entry Number Who Knows I'm Just Here To Talk Shit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a real short one but Calypso gets her time to shine a bit. hopefully i was able to bring just a small bit of everyone in, even just a bit

Today was quite eventful. Mahogany had another one of her usual meetings she tries to have along with the other gods and powerful people. I’ll never say it to her, or not in a way to be rude, but it’s practically useless to host those. 

Those guys practically mock her, it’s so frustrating to see. I’d say maybe only Flame and the angel are the only ones that care somewhat for these meetings. Ielo’s still working on being just a tad better but that’s a process, then the Madame somewhat attempts to participate but that’s questionable. The Void is a bit hard to tell but they probably don’t care either. 

I want to say Cardmaster is a bit trying to care but they are almost always fidgeting with their cards. Ugh, do I not want to get started on Those Others. The King of Hell left a dirty rude blacksmith man in charge and the man seems super enthusiastic to be here, or even alive. Speaking of “even alive”, the zombie general the majority of the time is lost in space or another dimension. She just gives me, an off feeling; I’m not sure if she was there a long time ago. 

Anyways and finally the rest don’t even bother to show up. I don’t know much about the absent two red sides but Mx. Water dude has been MIA for a while. I’ve brought it up to Mahogany but she says its always been like that, at least she thinks so. 

I’ve rambled on too much about those guys, which means now I’ve got to show what I mean. 

-  
Usually these meetings consist of just the gods themselves or the ones that are kind and respectful enough to at least. However this time, Mahogany had asked for the “help of us youngsters.” This certainly showed me that there was more “youth” than I had thought. 

I knew the Madame had her monsters but I had not expected her to comply with Mahogany’s request. So you could perhaps imagine my surprise when she had actually brought in a jiang shi child. Madame Red held her hand but looked completely unbothered by the jiang shi’s bouncy-excitedness. It was interesting to see a new source of positivity in the draining meeting so naturally I loved it. Madame Red let her introduce herself to everyone and my heart melted when she introduced herself as Xu Li. 

On the similar terms of Madame Red’s reanimated family, no one expected to see Cardaster present the wooden doll (who’s name I now know) as their guest. Well maybe Madame Red did since I did see a small smile from her when Cardmaster introduced Marie. It looked like she really did care for these monsters. 

Mahogany brought the muses in as well but the biggest surprise of the whole meeting was that Magmar had brought a kid in. It was his niece, he explained briefly to those who didn’t know (me). The girl was pretty quiet most of the time, but she didn’t seem all that bothered to be there. I wondered if she was used to big meetings and important people from hell. 

The meetings started off like they usually did. Mahogany would ask for reports on everyone’s lands, worlds, or dimension, the boring but important stuff. Though practically everyone hated it, to be informed about the world was crucial, and I believe her. 

“Now just like usual,” Mahogany started,” Anyone want to go first to report?” The usual silence but I still felt second hand embarrassment from it. I guess Flame had also felt it because she cleared her throat. 

“I think from what I know the ice dome is doing fine, right Ielo?” Flame gestured to her sibling. Ielo nodded. “Temperatures at their lowest and everyone in their highest performance.” 

Mahogany nodded and smiled at them. “Alright thats a check on you two, how about you angel?” The angel gave Mahogany a simple nod. 

“Everything in order with you all?” Mahogany asked. Another nod. “No problems, no concerns, anything?” she asked again. He shook his head ‘no’. Mahogany smiled and nodded. 

“Alright moving down factions, we’ve checked off Ielo already, any of you two want to report something?” Mahogany asked Madame Red and General Min who sat next to each other.   
They looked at each other, seeing who’d go first before Min gave Madame Red the turn to speak. 

“Everything seems to be in order with my monsters and I,” Madame Red gave Mahogany a simple statement. Mahogany did not seem to have received enough information and slowly nodded. 

“Orderly as in how?” Mahogany questioned. The further questioning irked the madame a bit but she kept her composure. Min patted her arm giving her a reassuring look. 

“We do what we’re supposed to, when we’re supposed to, and keep it done swiftly,” Madame Red gave a second reply, “Isn’t that right you two?” She was gesturing to Xu Li who hopped a bit agreeing with Madame and Marie who simply nodded. 

Mahogany seemed convinced and charmed by the two monster’s reassurance to Madame Red’s statement and looked over to General Min. Unfortunately as she began to speak, I zoned out however it wasn’t as if I had much interest in whatever goes on in the Dead End Zone. 

When she was done, it was Void’s turn who just assured things were fine crossing dimensions. Cardmaster raised their hand immediately after. 

“Cardmaster, you know you don’t have to give a status report on the floaty forests,” Mahogany said but allowed them to go on. They smiled. 

“Well I’m sure you’d like to know that the forest is in tip top shape!” they said. Mahogany nodded and smiled at them. 

“Well that’s wonderful,” was all Mahogany got to say before Cardmaster continued. 

“However,” Cardmaster began again. The room grew tense. 

“Marie and I have found that the forest is littered with so many pinecones that I’m sure we’ll drown in them.” And then the room was back to normal. Mahogany smiled and nodded. 

“If you two could round up a small box of pinecones I’ll take them,” Ielo offered. Flame gave her a look of, ‘What the heck are we going to do with a box of pinecones’ and Ielo then asked for two more boxes of pinecones. 

Cardmaster and Marie looked delighted after that. Now the final remaining person was Magmar since he was the only one from that faction that attended. Once all the attention was on him and sat back and cleared his throat.

“Everything is, how’d Cardy say, ‘in tip top shape’,” he said as his niece to bump his shoulder. Cardmaster held up their cards.   
“Pass,” Magmar waved Cardmaster’s threat. “You wanna try, Val?” he asked his niece. Val thought for a moment. 

“Mmm sure toss me a card over,” Val accepted. 

“I wasn’t offering a card reading but you don’t deserve the consequences of his actions,” Cardmaster said as they shuffled their cards for a bit before sliding one over to her. Val picked up the card, inspected it. She nodded at it, turned it down before sliding it back over. 

“What’d you get Val?” Magmar asked her. Val grinned. “I got the none of your business card.” This made Cardmaster burst out laughing and I could see Marie attempting to hide her smile. 

“Hm?” Madame Red leaned closer to Xu Li who had tapped her shoulder to ask for something. A few seconds passed before Madame Red announced that Xu Li also wanted to look at a card. Mahogany nodded and smiled as Cardmaster slid over a card to them. 

Xu Li carefully picked up the card and gasped as she saw it. She then only revealed the card to Madame Red who gave a small ‘ooh’.

“Would you like to share with everyone your card, Xu Li?” Madame asked her. Xu Li nodded before enthusiastically holding the card up for everyone to see that it was the crown card. Everyone gave her a gesture of approval before she gave back the card. 

“Well if no one else has anything to say or bring up, I’d like to announce the planning of a summer ball,” Mahogany finally brought up cheerfully. Unfortunately the majority of them did not offer a positive response. 

“Mahogany wouldn’t you rather focus on, let’s say, anything else?” was Magmar’s response which got him a kick in the shin from Val. “Look, I don’t think we need a big ol’ party on our calendars, and I feel like it wouldn’t be a big help for you either.” 

Mahogany sat up straighter. “What you don’t know about me is that I wouldn’t propose such a big event if I wasn’t ready for it. You don’t know that I’ve kept ahead of my tasks either or that I’ve gained a lot of help from my friends in order to even suggest this to you all.” She looked at the muses and I, to which we all agreed with her. 

“Besides,” Flame spoke up, “If ya don’t want to attend, you don’t have too.” Magmar sat back. Mahogany smiled at Flame, a small thank you to her. 

“So I’ve got very little vague details on this event, but I cannot and will not go further on plans if most of you do not agree on it,” Mahogany kept her voice high and proud, radiating her confidence to the rest of the gods. Flame raised her hand. 

“I’ll follow through anything you do,” she said to her. Mahogany blushed and nodded. Cardmaster, the angel, and Void agreed as well. Flame looked over to Ielo. 

“If you need any help, I’ll be there,” Ielo said raising her hand as Flame shook her in excitement. Min raised her hand as well. It took Madame Red a little bit of pondering but she eventually agreed since she was already overruled by the majority. Mahogany internally celebrated. 

“Miss Mahogany may we also vote on this?” Polaris, one of the three muses asked. 

“Oh of course, that reminds me I haven’t said why I’ve asked you all to come,” Mahogany said as she referred to the guests. “I took a risk with even bringing you all in, but now that we’ve all or the majority of us are in for the ball, I wanted to get all of your suggestions!” 

Some hands were raised which was honestly so funny to me because now everyone wants to participate. Mahogany, the muses and I kept note at what was being suggested. 

“Marie and I want a chocolate fountain,” Cardmaster suggested. I scribbled down a column for ‘Food’ and wrote it down. “Anyone else want to suggest something you may think is necessary?” I called out.

Ielo and Flame suggested multiple event locations even though Mahogany kept her ideal place in mind. Someone else suggested RSVP, though Mahogany wasn’t so into the idea of limiting fun events. Looking over my list, it just seemed as if people suggested basic things they thought Mahogany couldn’t do. It frusturated me to see her just let them think she’s not capable of simple tasks but I won’t say anything because that’d only make me like them. Anyway back to the lists and suggestions, it was the most activity I had seen in the meeting room. 

Mahogany allowed a break for everyone to talk amongst each other, which gave me enough time to handle my personal endeavors. Unfortunately, I wasn’t so smart at the time to be asking such personal questions to Mahogany until she asked me to discuss it at a later time. An awkward thing for me to ask at the time so I decided to go around asking the opinion of the others for party reasons. 

The muses planned together but it felt off for me to suddenly barge into their already created best friend group so I looked around for anyone who seemed to have the time. I spotted Val and Magmar talking to each other and even though I secretly wanted to talk to Val, I knew that my presence would not be wanted by her uncle. So I moved on to who I had spotted next; Ielo and Flame. 

It’s odd to see them interact more with each other because they would literally never even look at each other before. However, it was more comforting to see them all laughing and giggling with each other. And then the thought of bothering them while they were mingling entered my mind and so I walked away. 

Downstairs, I spotted the infamous duo, Marie and Cardmaster playing with cards on the floor. Before my brain could make up an excuse to walk away, Cardmaster spotted me. They waved over to me, which I did a double take to who they were calling over. 

“Hey Marie and I have another suggestion for the party!” they called over to me as I headed towards them. Of course, I forgot why I was even walking around. 

“What did you have in mind?” I asked them both. 

“Cheese,” they both said together. 

“Cheese…?” I asked for further explanation. They nodded. 

“Like, lots of cheese,” Marie continued, “Enough to maybe even make a possibly fair size cheese tower?” They both pleaded me with the most fakest but cutest grins ever. 

“I’ll write it down,” I told them, “Though remember these aren’t final decisions.” 

“Ok!”

“Also try to suggest more things that aren’t food.” 

Moving down I spotted both angel and General Min. Angel seemed to be taking a meditation break but the general just stood as if she were waiting. Well I wasn’t going to interrupt a peaceful meditation but I’d prefer to had done that than strike up a conversation with the undead. 

I noticed that I had not spotted neither Madame Red and her jiang shi nor Void, which were the last two on my list to ask. Just as I had thought Madame Red and Xu Li walked down the stairs, greeting the general. 

I heard Madame Red ask Xu Li if she wanted to stroll through the garden to which she agreed to and they all eventually walked away. It looked like I couldn’t go follow her around for suggestions, so I looked around for Void. 

I only lightly searched around for them but even still I could not find them. I knew I had to give up the small mission I had set for myself and began to head back to the meeting room. Eventually everyone came in, awaiting the next topic. 

“I should have dismissed you all earlier but in that case, anyone have any last suggestions for the ball?” Mahogany asked everyone. Cardmaster and Marie both raised their hands but I knew what they wanted. 

“I have it highlighted, underlined and circled,” I answered them before they could ask Mahogany. They both put their hands down. Mahogany smiled and nodded. 

“Well I’ve decided to end the meeting earlier to save all the youngster’s souls so everyone please have a lovely day!” Mahogany called out to them. I then scooted over to her once everyone had walked out. 

“You did great Miss,” I assured her and the muses crowded around to agree. Mahogany smiled. 

“Thank you all, you know how much I put into even standing there, in front of all those guys.” The muses agreed to which we all received a big group hug from Mahogany. The muses and I began to part ways, Mahogany called me over. 

“Calypso, could you come over here please?” too which the muses ‘ooh’ before scampering off, laughing. However I knew I wouldn’t be in trouble because Mahogany dislikes conflict. 

Mahogany took a deep breath in and then out. “I’ve seen you’ve been bothered by something and I know you wanted to talk to me about, which I’m sorry to have dismissed you like that-” 

“No, no Miss, that was my mistake on wanting to bring something personal up at a terrible time.” 

“So what is it you want to talk about, I’ll be all ears, and eyes,” she joked but still kept her concern. 

“It’s, it’s more than a handful of things, but there’s something more important for me, out of all my angst to discuss,” I said vaguely. 

“And that is?”

“That is something to talk about not here, I’m sorry, could I have some time to properly bring it together?” I had chickened out at the moment but now I know I’m going to need the time. 

“Of course, meet me when you’re ready please Calypso?” I nodded and thanked her. On my way here I spotted the general parting from Madame Red and Xu Li. The undead left a chilling aura around me, but I couldn’t put it together why I had just not let it be. 

Anyway, I’m going to finally be meeting with Mahogany soon, so perhaps I may be lifted of this feeling, the feeling of when my entire life changed. 

-Cal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next part of this chapter continues once i get the Calypso comic posted, which may be a weekly thing! and i always forget to mention that Madame and her monsters belong to the lovely @starsandthorn i love her and her writing <333
> 
> also rip editing sorry lads


End file.
